From Excelsior Needle Co. to Timken: The Rise and Fall of Torrington's Standard Plant

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The Standard Plant and a Century of Making Things It was a hot May week in 2023, and J and I were already sweating through our shirts before we even made it to the entrance. We turned into the driveway off North Elm Street and passed a large Caterpillar backhoe holding up the red, white, and blue at the top of the arm. Patriotic machinery. Only in Connecticut. We moved toward the back of the complex with our eyes open, scanning for any sign of people or activity. We found cameras instead. A few of them, well-positioned across one of the buildings and up on an electrical pole, covering angles that made our original entry plan useless. We backed off, found a Plan B, and stepped into a dark room washed in tinted green light, then took the stairs down to ground level. The former Standard Plant sits along North Elm Street at a sunken grade, one story, with another building rising over the roadway to the far right when you're standing in front of it from North Street. It's the kind o...
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The Gentrification House

 

A street corner in Brooklyn showcasing the stark contrast between old and new: a graffiti-covered, dilapidated building with a weathered façade stands beside a modern, multi-story apartment with clean lines and glass balconies. A pedestrian crossing in the foreground underscores the crossroads of urban change and gentrification.


I believe I saw this house on social media during the pandemic. It wasn't until I was hunting boarded-up houses around Bushwick Brooklyn I came upon the 'gentrification house' by happenstance. I pulled over immediately and went to work to find the right angle. I knew it was going to be a very pleasing aesthetic composition because of the pointed contrast. When you see it it is very striking in its presence. All over the city, you see the same architectural housing popping up all with the same aesthetic without any difference in uniformity or uniqueness. Even the NYTimes did a piece on this budget constraining developer buildings across several states such as Nashville, Denver, and Seattle.






Source:


1. Kodé, Anna, "America, the Bland," January 20, 2023, NYTimes

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